New Character. New Goals.

A new character is a blank slate. You don’t want to fill that slate before even setting out on your first adventure. You want to keep room on that slate to write as much as possible about what happens. What your character experiences through play. What your character learns. What your character does. 

But a goal or two does help.

Even if the goal is to accumulate gold. Then many players ask themselves why? Why does this character want all this gold? That’s how you start filling the blank slate before your adventures even happen. Maybe the why is better left until later. Until you get to know the character. Until the adventure fills in some blanks.

Is your goal to be the party protector? Do you need to know why? Or will you find out why during the adventure? Perhaps you find out why when that other character you protected does some great deed in the future. 

Play to find out. Play to flesh out. Play to explain those short, one-liner goals. Each play is likely to bring different answers from the last.

And each goal unwritten, or unelaborated, is less likely to fail to meet your expectations when the adventure takes you in a completely new direction.

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